Maths Olympiad Prep

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Geometry Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Find the answer

Given the lengths ABAB and BCBC and the fact that the medians to those two sides are perpendicular, construct the triangle ABCABC.

Solution

1. **Constructing the right triangle DEF \triangle DEF :**
- We are given the lengths AB AB and BC BC and the fact that the medians to these sides are perpendicular.
- First, we need to find the lengths DF DF and DE DE using the given formulas:
DF=BC215AB260 DF = \sqrt{\frac{BC^2}{15} - \frac{AB^2}{60}}
DE=AB215BC260 DE = \sqrt{\frac{AB^2}{15} - \frac{BC^2}{60}}
- Construct a right triangle DEF \triangle DEF with D=90 \angle D = 90^\circ , DF DF as one leg, and DE DE as the other leg.

2. **Placing points A A and C C :**
- Let A A be on DE DE such that D D is between A A and E E .
- Let C C be on DF DF such that D D is between C C and F F .
- Ensure that ADC \triangle ADC is similar to EDF \triangle EDF and that the ratio ACFE=2 \frac{AC}{FE} = 2 .

3. **Constructing the triangle ABC \triangle ABC :**
- Draw a line through A A and F F .
- Draw a line through C C and E E .
- Let the intersection of these two lines be B B .

4. Verification:
- Verify that the medians to sides AB AB and BC BC are perpendicular.
- This can be done by checking that the medians intersect at the centroid and form a right angle.

By following these steps, we have constructed the triangle ABC \triangle ABC with the given properties.

\blacksquare

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.